We are looking at getting, or maybe even building, ourselves a new bed and what better place to ask for ideas and advice than here
So we would really like a super king-size 4 poster bed, thing is it ideally needs to be low to the ground (our dog is too big to climb on anything lol, he doesn’t sleep with us but joins us for Sunday morning lay in lol).
We found one but the frame alone is around £900 which to be honest isn’t too bad for solid wood but my other half is thinking of building one instead which means we could make it however we want and also reinforce the base lol and also wouldn’t have any problems adding in things like metal rings to the bed posts etc… Also thinking mattresses as we have memory foam atm but potentially looking at a hybrid instead.
What specific features would you include on your own custom bed or do you have any recommendations
Hey Bex: My advice is that you can’t spent too much money on a bed
i) for a good night’s sleep ii) sexy times
I spent £1500 on mine, which my partner initially thought was nuts but soon became a convert, split around £900 on the bed, £600 on a sprung mattress. After destroying a couple of wooden beds, I went for a metal frame as it is very solid and plenty of grab / tie points on the head/foot boards. It also really looks the part. It is pretty much silent and doesn’t flex at all to bang against the wall. The base itself is sprung wooden slats which is where investing in a quality product helps, not only for night-time comfort but also longevity under sex assault.
I have had it seven or eight years now, under some pretty heavy duty treatment, and haven’t even had to re-tighten any of the bolts. … and it still gives a fantastic night’s sleep.
With some metal frames there are also alternate high fixings which you may find useful.
I just wish I’d had the knowledge from this thread back when I bought it. Sex Proofing Your Bed
The mattress is still fine but even in the height of passion we mainly manoeuvred so that I ended up sleeping in ‘the wet patch’ - which could still be very wet even several hours/days later.
@Melody1 thanks for this will definitely consider these things and to be honest that’s why we are thinking about building our own will have a read through the other thread too xx
I’d suggest a platform style base rather than sprung slats, especially if going for super king. Spend a decent amount on a good mattress and it won’t matter that the base is solid.
I’d be adding plenty anchor points for restraints…add enough around the perimeter and they begin to look like a stylistic element.
Super king bedding is pricey, just a heads up.
@Bex84 - Just did a quick sketch of a super king (6 ft x 6ft 6) subdivided into 6no. 3 ft x 2 ft 2 sections, with a 2 ft tall head board frame and 1ft legs using just scaffolding poles and fixings. Totalled £280.14 (+£65.93 shipping).
Not particularly cheap…but there may be ways of obtaining cheaper scaffold poles if you don’t mind cleaning up used ones or as you say, use some reclaimed timber for posts etc.
I just drew out a rectangle 6 x 6.5 (doesn’t matter your units). Figured a split into 2 from headboard to footboard made sense. Then dividing the 6 ft 6 length into 3x 2 ft 2 looked about right.
Then 1ft off the floor seemed a nice height for dogg-o (depends if this is too low for dogg-y ).
3ft from floor to top of headboard seemed right in my head.
That can be achieved with:
8no. 6 ft poles
3no. 7 ft poles
12no. base plates (for feet)
2no. 3-way elbows
7no. 3-way corners
3no. side outlet tees
2no. right angled elbows
1no. long tee
Then you’d need to add some form of timber sheet/boards to lay the mattress on and lugged brackets to secure the board to the scaffold.
I just used a single website for this; prices might be cheaper elsewhere.
Also, what I threw together is no doubt incredibly over designed - scaffolding can take ridiculous amounts of load/stress and so could probably be refined a fair bit.
[EDIT]
Adding timbers: 8no. 8ft legths cut to give 7no. 6 ft lengths (mattress supports with roughly 3cm between them) and 8no. 2 ft lengths (vertically butted together as two groups of four fills in each side of the headboard - central upright would be visible), plus associated bracketry… grand total now of £477.84
Also thinking mattresses as we have memory foam atm but potentially looking at a hybrid instead.
).